


The Stranger and the Anchored Heart

by DestructiveEmpathy



Category: Charlie Countryman (2013), Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Artist AU, M/M, Non-Consensual Kissing, Recreational Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 09:24:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11101638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestructiveEmpathy/pseuds/DestructiveEmpathy
Summary: Will's art has always felt like there's something missing, but when he meets a beautiful but dangerous man on the train to Paris he finds his inspiration.





	The Stranger and the Anchored Heart

Will sat staring out of the grimy window, watching as the French countryside sped by. It was twelve fifty two a.m., he was Will Graham and he should've been eating a cheap tuna sandwich with Abigail Hobbs. Instead he was in Europe, enjoying the last of his beer. Instead of Crayons, he now used a luxury artist pencils and charcoals. He smiled to himself as he finished a sketch in his book. It was of Abby's beautiful smile the morning they discovered she was to be released into a kind doctor's care.

Setting the coals down, Will returned his gaze to the window. He wondered what she was doing now. Likely dressed up in pretty Chanel dresses. His unlikely friend had been such a welcome blessing after he'd shot her father. He hoped that this new doctor would do more for her than Will ever could. 

"This one's near-fucking empty." The door slid open, startling Will. "Get the fuck in you whore." A man with floppy hair covering his face kicked his soldier-looking friend through the doorway. The two giggling men sat themselves on opposite sides of the cabin and started talking in fluent... something. Will couldn't place the language but knew weed when he smelled it.  

Remaining silent, Will coughed slightly and shifted away of the two men in the hopes of disappearing. He hugged his artist's pad close to his chest so they couldn't be tempted to flick through it and mock him. 

"Ey! I said, 'Paris worth it?'" The man with the hair prodded Will with his foot. "Do you think he speaks fucking English?" 

"Might be German!" the soldier said. He repositioned himself so he was nose to nose with Will and said something in German. Will only understood glimpses of the words but had absolutely no idea what the rest of it had meant. 

It must've been clear they were getting nowhere when the soldier stopped short and poked his nose. "I think he's fucking dumb." 

"Or deaf. Are you deaf, jigglytits?" The long haired one leaned in, obviously interested in getting Will to say something. 

Will shook his head and shifted away, unwilling to get into a fight so soon after leaving the hospital. If anyone found out, that would be his freedom lost for good. 

"Eh, Darko! Wanna play a game?" The long haired one turned to Darko, the soldier. "Whoever gets him to talk first takes him on a little date?" Will could tell the long haired one wanted him to hear his lewd suggestion, else he'd have said it in that _other_ language. 

"I don't even _want_ to fucking win that! He's probably fucking American. Or worse, _English_. There'll be no living with him." 

"I said date." 

"Oh, you mean just a fuck?" 

"You fuck on a first date? You fucking animal!" The long haired one smacked Darko on the shoulder. He turned to Will and said, "My name's Nigel. This guy's name is Darko. You wanna fuck one of us if we get you talking?" 

Will scoffed and turned more directly towards the window. 

"Oh! You want a threesome, right?" Darko laughed behind Will. 

"No." 

Silence filled the cabin. 

"No. I don't want a wank, a fuck or a threesome with either of you!" Will turned to face the two stunned men. "I just want to be left alone." 

Darko burst out laughing, holding his chest. Nigel's brow was creased, however. His attention was on something Will was holding. "Let me see that, Jiggly." He opened his large hand to accept the art book. 

Will shook his head and held the book tighter. 

"Please." Nigel's intense gaze had Will hesitate a moment. What harm could there be? If he said no again, what was to stop him from just taking the book from him? Will had cop training under his belt, but alone either one of them could crush his head with one arm. 

Will extended the sketchbook out to him, the fire in his eyes warning Nigel that criticism wouldn't be tolerated. 

Nigel sat back down in his seat and flicked through the book in a fascinating silence. Will hadn't let anyone see his art since Dr. Bloom had inspected his drawings. He'd been holding his breath in a different kind of anticipation back then. 

Darko seemed to know what to do while Nigel read, pulling out a packet of pills. "Come on sweetie." He offered Will a tablet. "While Mr. Critique masturbates." 

Will frowned and hoped to God that that was a mistranslation on Darko's part. "I'm not a 'sweetie'. And I don't take narcotics." He turned his attention back to Nigel. He watched as Nigel's pink tongue moistened his lips and his large hands turned each page as if it were the Bible. Right in that moment, Will _needed_ his approval. 

It felt like a lifetime when Nigel finally returned to the real world. Instead of saying anything at all, he took a pencil from one of Will's packets and started sketching something. 

"Hey!" Will went to grab the book but found a pain strike his gut and the air escaping his lungs. 

"Sit the fuck down." Nigel's leg was extended across the cabin, foot firmly buried in Will's belly. "I'm not fucking done." 

With a growl under his breath, Will returned to his seat and crossed his arms as he endured watching someone deface his art. When Darko offered the pill for a second time, Will accepted it without question. 

"There!" Nigel handed the sketchbook over and snatched a pill from Darko. "Don't you dare fucking cry over those masterpieces." 

Will scowled at him as he opened the book to reveal his art but _more_. These pieces were nothing like his attempts at photorealism. They were hectic, beautiful nightmares that threatened to end the very world Will knew. Dr. Bloom was twisted into an inky mermaid. Abigail's scar bloomed flowers from it's opening and Will's old boss, Crawford, had chains and the scales of justice weighing him down.  

Will didn't know what to say as the images started to move and twist. There was a lion hiding behind each of Nigel's pencil strokes. Will thought he could taste the fire that consumed one picture.

And then he _could_ taste fire. A tongue pressed past his lips and hands pushed through his curls. The deep scent of cologne and tobacco filled his lungs as he tried to breathe in. "Baiatul meu frumos. Beautiful, _beautiful_." 

Will tried to tug his head out of the other man's grasp, the fists gripping his hair tighter. "Who-" His lips were consumed again, before he bit down on the man's lip and shoved them across the cabin. Panting, he wiped his mouth and looked up. Nigel stared at him, pain and a dying fire in his eyes. 

Darko wasn't even in the cabin. 

"Why the fuck did you push me?" Nigel pressed his fingers to his split lip and checked for blood. 

"Why the fuck did you kiss me!" Will slammed his sketchpad shut and shoved it back into his inner coat pocket. 

"Tell me you don't like me." 

"Fuck off." 

"Tell me." 

Will looked directly at Nigel, the words choking him. "I... Don't _know_ you." 

"But you like me. You like my body. My art. Get to know me." Nigel moved back to cup Will's cheek. "Let me kiss your sweet lips again." 

"You called me Jigglytits! You realise that means I have breasts. Big man _tits_. No. I will _not_ kiss you." He shrugged the hand off of himself again, before he stood. "Goodbye 'Mr Floppytongue.'"

 

Will sat in the station cafe with his sketchbook as he tried to erase what Nigel had done to his art. As much as he loved the art itself, the artist had violated his privacy and every time he tried to appreciate the pictures he felt the tongue invade his mouth again. It wasn't even a bad kiss. Just sloppy and totally unwanted! His fingers trailed over his lips as he tried to remember Nigel's face. 

Curved lips; small sharp teeth and cheekbones that could cut glass. Will tilted his head and bit on his lip as he sketched out every little detail hidden away in his vivid memory. His curls fell over his face as he took great care in catching the essence of Nigel's eyes. How his heart shone through them. 

When he was finished, Will leaned back and looked at the picture with a satisfied huff. Something was missing, but something always was. Will stood and tucked his book into his coat before he hurried to the small and seedy hotel he'd be staying at during his trip. 

During the night, he dreamed of Nigel and in the morning he knew exactly what to add to the picture. 

Nigel held an anchored heart in his hands, the sea engulfing him. 

 


End file.
